Mlondolozi Ndlovu
The media plays a critical role in the county’s fight against the cancer epidemic and hence must be incorporated in all the strategies by health stakeholders a senior official has said.
Permanent secretary in the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare Brigadier General Gerald Njini whose speech was read by DR Ntokozo Ndlovu at a Radiation Protection Authority of Zimbabwe has said.
The workshop was on the role of the media in cancer prevention and was held at Cresta Oasis in Harare on Tuesday.
‘Cancer is a disease that needs advocacy. Even in developed countries there are partnerships that include social partners’ he said further enforcing the vital role that the media plays.
‘The media is instrumental in information dissemination, it assist in showing what the general public must know about the early symptoms of cancer. The media also assist in awareness of where to go, what can be done and what facilities are available’ he said saying that cancer is now the number one killer disease.
‘Cancer is one of the biggest killer diseases in Africa. Most cancer death by 2030 will be in this continent. It calls for attention that we address cancer with the same or more vigor we did with TB and HIV’ said Njini.
Present at the event were specialist radiologists and Doctors who taught journalists on the basics of cancer reporting, its causes, early detection and prevention.
The media was urged to disseminate information adequately so that they contribute to early cancer detection.
Speaker after speaker reiterated that cancer treatment is very expensive and takes a long time hence journalists must lead in the campaign for early testing like they did to HIV and AIDS.
The experts also noted that there is no funding for research in cancer which reduces home grown knowledge on the cancer epidemic.
